When “Little” Becomes “Limitless”…

Two words, “little” and “limitless” have become my theme this week. How auto correct would ever change the word little to limitless is beyond me. But when “little” becomes “limitless”, that’s more than ok. It’s incredibly awesome! I’ve thought about these words and how they apply to my life. After last week’s blog post, “Digging Deeper, Whatever It Takes”, I’ve done some hard thinking about the things that I’ve felt were limiting to me. I’ve come to realize that while my dreams may be big, my own thinking is still small. My own “little” is keeping me from my “limitless”.

It was last Monday when I was typing the word “little” on my phone. I was texting a few friends, asking for a “little” prayer. I had started experiencing the familiar symptoms that have landed me in the hospital four times in the past, symptoms that have been the reason for two of my surgeries. I’ve talked about this before in a post, “I’m Not Average.” Monday, I was preparing to go the hospital. I really thought that by that night, I would be admitted. I know how this goes. I followed the doctors’ instructions to try and prevent another episode, which haven’t been successful previously. I made it through that day with no hospital admission. I’m happy to say that my symptoms have subsided a little more each day since, and today I feel back to normal!

I asked some friends for a “little” prayer last week, too. I told you about the issue with bulging disks in my neck. That’s been more than a little painful! I’m happy to say that the pain has gotten better each day since! It’s not completely gone, but I’ve been able to stop taking all the pain medication I was on. And for those who know the story already, there is a good chance I can start running again next week!

As a child, my parents took me to church and taught me to believe in God. Yes, they taught me, but I’m the one who had to learn what it meant to believe in a god. Like every other person out there, I had to do my own searching and formulate my own opinion about who God was and what place he was going to have in my life. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, I think you would agree that my life has been quite an adventure. I would describe it as being a “better than a soap opera” kind of life. These experiences have given me much opportunity for life lessons. I’ve had lots of opportunity to let experiences make me bitter or better. I chose to let them make me better and in the process, I did indeed form my own opinion of who God was and what place he was going to have in my life.

I think back on the Bible stories I heard as a child. There were a couple times recorded in the Bible, when Jesus, God’s son, found himself in a remote location with large crowds gathered around to hear him speak. They became hungry and there were no grocery stores nearby, so Jesus took the little that he had, like a few loaves of bread or a couple fish. When he put his hand of blessing on it, the little became limitless! He not only fed the thousands that were gathered. They even had leftovers!

There was a widow that’s talked about in the Old Testament. She was in debt up to her eyeballs and her two sons that were about to be made slaves to pay for her debt. She asked a prophet if he could help her. He asked her what she had. The widow told the prophet that she had nothing except a “little” jar of oil. The prophet asked her to do something quite odd, but amazingly, she listened to him and did it. He told her to gather up all the empty jars that she could find, so she gathered every empty jar she had and even got all the neighbor’s jars. Next she was to go inside her house and start pouring the small amount of oil from her little jar, into the big empty jars. Can you imagine all the thoughts going through her mind about how crazy this was, as she did it? I’m sure she expected it to take about two seconds for the oil in her little jar to run empty, but it didn’t! She just kept pouring her little into her emptiness and every single jar was completely filled. The oil didn’t stop flowing until there was nothing left to pour into. Her little became limitless! Her sons were saved from slavery and her debt was paid.

Those are just a couple of the many, biblical examples of little becoming limitless.

Believe me when I tell you that in my own life, there have been many times when God made my “little” become “limitless”! I hope you’ve caught that in my posts. I don’t talk about God in most of my posts, but I believe that there have been many events that I consider to be “a God thing”. Maybe they weren’t all good things, but God worked them together for good in my life.

I was inspired twice this week by video links posted by friends. Both were of a man born with no arms or legs, Nick Vujicic. Now this is indeed, a man who has what appears to be, very limiting factors in his life. Yet, when you talk about someone who has overcome obstacles, he’s one of the best examples I’ve seen! I’ve posted the links to these two video clips below. Nick not only gets where he needs to go, which is challenging in itself, but he even swims, surfs and plays golf. He is now a bestselling author and a motivational speaker who travels the world. His first book was titled, “Life Without Limits”. Nick is a perfect, real time example of “little becoming limitless”. I look at his life and can’t help but be moved to let go of every excuse I’ve ever made!

There is one common denominator in each of these examples. It’s the God Factor. God was involved in the Bible stories, my own life and certainly in Nick Vujicic’s life. It’s been quoted by several people, “The size of your God, determines the size of your goals.” Through my own life lessons, I’ve come to believe with all my heart, that I’ve got a really, really BIG GOD! I feel that I’ve spent much time exploring the aspects of his love, grace and mercy. With each new obstacle I’ve bumped up against, I find His love, grace and mercy are there. I have yet to find their limits. But you know, I’ve stopped looking for limits. “Little” is going to have very limited use in my vocabulary from here on out. I’ve concluded that my God is big enough for whatever comes my way, that he is indeed, limitless!

The moral of this story: If God is big enough for me and all the messes I’ve made, he can be big enough for you, too!